Marielle Gerke

Marielle is born in Berlin, living in Witzenhausen between Kassel and Göttingen since 2010.There, she discovered her passion for dancing – especially for Contact Improvisation in 2012.Since then she is continuously fascinated by this unique and exciting dance form. She lovesthe playfulness that lays in it and the diversity of movement options that become availablewhen moving together with shared weight. For her is remarkable how clear nonverbalcommunication can become if both dance partners allow their bodies to truly fall into eachother while listening to the proposed directions of movement under the skin. In her practice asa dancer and teacher the exploration of developmental movement patterns, principles ofleading and following over the soft tissues of the body and water work are very useful andexciting. She is interested in exploring anatomical structures in hands on work and whiledancing.Teachers that she feels inspired and influenced by are mainly Jörg Hassmann, Daniel Werner,Kira Kirsch, Antoine Ragot, Nina Wehnert, Friederike Tröscher and Jens Johannsen. She hasbeen studying with Jörg Hassmann and Daniel Werner in their Basic Training Programme inTanzfabrik in Berlin for three years – one as participant and two as assistant. Since 2012 sheorganises the weekly Contact Impro Jam in Witzenhausen together with Katja-BahiniMangold. Marielle teaches Contact Improvisation since 2015 in regular evening classes,different workshop formats and on various international Contact Impro festivals in Germany,Austria, Portugal and India. Since 2016 she is also teaching in the school for contemporarydance Sozo Visions in Motion in Kassel, is involved in different performance projects and isgiving private lessons both in water as well as on land. Marielle offers her own trainingprogram for Contact Improvisation and Watercontact called Movementa Training Kassel. Sheis currently student in the Somatic Movement Education Program (SME) at Moveus as part ofher Body-Mind-Centering certification process. Further she keeps on researching andstudying the findings of the Axis Syllabus community and is training to become apsychological coach at the school for naturopaths Paracelsus.https://mariellegerke.de/en/

INTENSIVE BERLIN FESTIVAL 2020

“Breathing Beings, Falling Starfish & Moving Masses”

– Somatic Essentials into Contact Improvisation

In this Intensive we are using my favorite somatic explorations and experiential anatomy as a point of departure for solo movement as well as Contact Improvisation.

These somatic essentials support us in becoming present in our own bodies, to get into motion with an internal focus on our sensations rather than an external focus on aesthetics.

From this present and awake state we meet the outer world, starting to relate and interact with the others through movement as well as through touch and weight. We try out the idea to temporarily become one with another body and being, creating a sensitive and mobile system together. We practice sharing equally the responsibility for staying in contact as well as in motion.

Through exemplary pathways we investigate how we share weight, space and time together with the least necessary effort. I love using patterns both stationary and with a trajectory to research on the technical details that make our CI life a little easier.

So, there will be both somatic improvisation as well as contact technique.